The case dates back to 2005, when a plot of land in Panchkula was re-alloted to Associated Journals Limited by then Congress government headed by Hooda

The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked former chief minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda for alleged re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited in Panchkula in 2005. The FIR also names chairman and other senior officials of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) .

The senior Congressman has been booked for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating and misuse of official position by public servants.

Associated Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of now defunct daily The National Herald, was allotted the plot initially in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, then Haryana Vikas Party government led by Bansi Lal took back its possession. It was re-allotted to AJL after the Congress came to power in the state in 2005

Haryana state vigilance bureau had also registered a case of cheating and corruption against Hooda and four officials in May 2016. The bureau had alleged that the act by the then HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to the state as the plot should have been sold through open auction instead of being alloted again to AJL.